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Just took delivery of a Sadowsky Masterbuilt. It’s an amazing looking thing and I hope it sounds as good as it looks! That’ll be a job for this evening.

Been waiting a year for this, there's a build diary some of you have been kind enough to comment on. Awesome build quality, the pictures don't really do the complexity of the grain justice. Plays like butter, Alan commented that it was "very fretless" and he's bang on, tons of mwaaaa all day long. Absolutely love it.

OK, first impressions: This thing is LOUD. And - let's get this out of the way - it does sound like a Trace, especially with the pre-shape engaged. It's got that characteristic scoopy punch in spades. The compressor is great, possibly a little heavy-handed, but I recall the original SMX compressor was no different. The volume goes down noticeably when it's dialled anything above around 10 o'clock. EQ las a lot of flexibility, the two mid controls seem to affect quite a wide bandwidth, so there's a lot of sounds in there. I like the footswitch, but it might have been nice to have a cordless Bluetooth one - the MIDI cable kinda gets in the way. Rack ears are cheesy. Only thing I'm not liking so far is there's no input gain monitoring LED or anything like that. It'd be nice to see if I'm overloading the preamp. Might have been nice to incorporate that into the LED that lights the gain knob. Going to A/B it against my Mesa WD-800 next.

It's here. I'll post some thoughts on it later once I've had a bit of a play.

Board update... I just need to tidy up the cabling underneath now!

So close. unfortunately…got lots of follow up work to do after a bad day at work. anyhow…at some point… The Modern player will be fully rescued. Thanks to @OllyWfor the heads up on the tuning pegs.

I ended up buying the Sire P5 that Jezza was selling. I have to say it's very very nice!! The neck is beautiful and it sounds lovely!! I had previously tried a Squire CV a week before and the Sire was much nicer to play!

I'm not convinced that anxiety is the reason. I think the main reason is boredom. The amount of time musicians have to spend hanging around just waiting is enormous. That's ok when you play weekends, and return home at night. When you're travelling around it gets tedious fast, and alcohol and other substances start to appear regularly.

Oh for god's sake. Why couldn't you have told us it was crap? Why? Now I can hear my credit card whimpering from the other room. Rack ears do look a bit, errm, yes... I think I'd be getting busy with the T-Cut to get rid of the logo.

Still playing with it. It's good. And my BF Big Twin II is a good pairing for it, since it's got the power handling capacity to properly do it justice. Regarding what I was saying about the input monitoring, an active/passive switch might have been nice. I was using my MM Bongo (VERY hot output) and it was distorting slightly at about 50% input gain. My J-Retro-equipped Jazz and my Spector were super-clean at that level. Did the A/B test with my Mesa WD-800. The Mesa isn't as loud, the tone is a little smoother thanks to the valve preamp, and I really appreciate its highpass filter control to dial out the super-lows. More versatile EQ too. But it's nowhere near as punchy as the Trace. The Trace is, for want of a better expression, more lively and feels "bouncier", if that's actually a thing. One other little niggle though - I've just packed it away in its gig bag and the bag has a carrying handle but no shoulder strap. But at least there's room for the amp, the footswitch and a bunch of cables.

Dear Friends, attached the final version ( Rendering ) of my new EVO 4 Headless Bass Bridge , including tuners 😎

It's pronounced:

That makes sense. You wouldn't read that in the leftist controlled liberal media which is controlled by Soros under the orders of the illuminati who are working with the Clinton's and Bill Gates to control us and keep us away from the bird drones that the Mason's are building for the new world orders communist plans to cancel Christmas.

Can I again say a huge thank you to Rich and Andy and Andy’s son for the help in getting this to me. I can’t say thank you enough to all of you. Jon

Sooo…yeah. Looks like I’m ordering the hipshot ultralights. Neck holes are pre drilled. A little wax and pre fit screw check…all good. but I’m not getting into pressing the bushes in. Will be a nice bass when it’s done. Needs a good clean still.

I'm currently waiting on these 2 short scale builds. 30" Cazpar: Swamp Ash natural matte finish, roasted flame Maple 3 piece neck with chosen White Ebony fb, Nordstrand Zen blades with Delano sonar 2 pre and Hipshot hardware, I have this set of custom White Ebony knobs waiting for it also. 30" Elwood L: Alder body with this chosen unique looking Spalted Maple top & headstock, roasted maple neck with Wenge fb, Delano Xtender humbucker ( to be placed in sweet spot), Noll TCM3 preamp & Hipshot mini clover tuners.

Ok, video. Enjoy! I swear to goodness this took me ages to figure out how to do, and it's so long I had to do a ton of editing. On the plus side, I've learned a lot and can now make a video in Reaper. I'm still adding time stamps in description, please be patient... @NickA I'm not sure I'll have time today to upload the screenshots I promised of frequency response. Will get to it!

That is 100% the truth - my old ABm 210 combo was making all sorts of weird noises - Guy from Ashdown stripped it, replaced one board, re-soldered a whack of it - put in new slider grips and gave it a hair cut, all for the princely sum of a great chat!!!! And for that reason, I am Ashdown4Life.

Bob murley perhaps 🤔

Movement of jah peupel, I think.

I discussed it with my brother who borrowed it from me on occasion. He remembered it as being not light. I have rose tinted lenses on and remember it as being fabulous in all ways. As I do with virtually everything I have sold ever.

DooDoo Da Doo Doo Doo

broadly speaking, anything that's conductive will work. I've always found that roughing up the back of the pot (sandpaper or a small file) takes the plating off the back, and allows the solder to attach to the metal better.

Thght I re-visit this cracking thread.. It's 1980 and I'm on the Ilse of Wight (substantial pub, club and holiday season scene at the time). I was 20 but done a lot stuff and was currently in a very good prog rock outfit with a deal, the coach and UK mainland tours (yes terrible timing etc..it failed miserably!) Once I'd got myself together I met in a guitar shop a guy called 'Neil Cassidy'. What a revelation this guy was...he could play Reggae like crazy and dance Specials style too. We found a drummer and made a few calls. The next 18 months ( along time to be in a band back then as there was always something else going on), we stormed it..An amazing time. Just the three of us doing BM, UB40, and all the others..... A three piece Reggae outfit where everyone knows what there doing is huge fun......Good memories. Got a feeling we broke up when Forget me Knots found its way onto the set list....what?..haha

My favourite is Rubus Cockburnianus.

sorry bout the mess!!

I spent at least 15 years obsessing about my tone in the mistaken belief that other people gave a toss.

Has arrived, is awesome. What a finish, I'm used to bubinga having a grain to it and I think I imagined the feel of the bass to be more textured, but it's absolutely flawlessly smooth. Gong to take some time to get used to it and the filter based pre, which seems to be capable of some very wide-ranging settings. I'll out a few more pics in an NBD post in Guitars.

FEN-der. No need to worry about all that other stuff.

Zoom B1 FOUR. Pretty cheap, does what you want and has a load of effects to play with too

Greyhound ～ Calpurnia

Here's a couple of finished guitar builds....... 👍🏻

A few more update progress pictures.

I've been playing for 35 years and I still couldn't tell you what the Ampeg sound is and I've even had an Ampeg amp.

The Mercy Seat - Nick Cave

As @eadhas pointed out, I went to have a look and a play of his RSD fretless and I was extremely impressed. So much so that I bought one myself. I don't like black basses as a rule but the black sparkle on this works very well. The fit and finish is really good and the hardware is also quality. I don't feel the need to change the tuners or bridge. I will change out the pre-amp for an East deluxe as @eadhas done as that is a worthwhile exercise. I really don't like the string tree so I will replace that with a hipshot unit - £15 delivered from Bass Direct and the red tort pickguard really cheapens the look IMO. A bwb replacement is a great shout and finishes off the bass nicely. This is something I have done and it cost less than £30.

It goes into the sea. Which is the real reason for sea level rises!

Prince Fatty is such a cool dude and really knows his mixing, this is a nice tune

Barefaced is beret-fa-kayed, right? IGMC.

No, no,no! It's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove" 😊

My first bass was a Hohner Jack headless. It was bought as a Christmas present and hidden away, but in the weeks prior to the 25th, unbeknownst to my parents I used to sneak it out of its box and have a go every day after I got home from school. One afternoon, I broke a string and because they were headless they cost a fortune. I ended up selling half my railway set to the next door neighbour to pay for a new set of strings and my parents were none the wiser. I'm only admitting this now as they are no longer with us.